Looking for ex-MoD scale model Bailey Bridge, or parts thereof

a bit of a forlorn hope this one...but as my old Granny used to say, "if you don't ask, you don't get"

I'm looking for whole sets, or just random parts, from the old MoD Bailey Bridge Instructional model sets. These things are about 1/6th scale, made mostly from wood with some metal fittings and go together as a normal Bailey Bridge would (with one or two caveats).

These things were first made during the war by the famous Bassett-Lowke company (under contract from the WD) and were used to instruct Sappers in the classroom. They continued to be made post war and they even did sets for SWBB and EWBB. By the late 50's and the move to HGB and again Bassett-Lowke made scale models of these also.

I've been collecting bits for years and have a lot of the more esoteric stuff (even the lads at the RE Museum cry when they hear what I have) but I'm short of a lot of the very basic parts...like Bailey Panels.

Has anyone ever seen any of these sets, or know anyone who has one?

Here's a picture of the BB Pontoons to give you an idea what I'm taling about.

That's a 12" figure standing in the middle of the Pontoon and he's there to give an idea of scale. Fittingly, he's a Tankie and he damned impatient for this Bridge to be built so if anyone can help we'd both be most grateful!

Well I don't have any bridge components but you coud try Mabey Johnson as they now make the 'new' Mabey Logistic Support Bridge. The units are still fabricated in the Uk and you could try them. As you said "don't ask"......... Most RE units have the EWBB bridges in the Training Wings as does the RE Museum at Chatham.

Sadly Mabey-Johnson don't have these either, I have tried. I do that the Army, in it's ever infinite wisdom, burnt tons of these models back in the 80's. Typical Army thinking. We don't need but we can't let it fall into any ones elses hands so burn it. There's a set at IWM and the RE Museum has some of the basic stuff although they're short of pontoons. There's also a really nice set-up in the museum at the Dutch school of Military engineering, but there's not much left in the wild as it were.

Some sets that weren't burnt back in the 80's inevitably found their way down the chain to CCF units and that's where I got most of the stuff I have now. I'm just hoping that somewhere there's someone who knows a CCF unit or a mate who has got some of it laying around! I'm willing to pay!

I have thought about building my own (got all the drawings for all the versions, BB, IWBB, SWBB and EWBB) and to be honest it wouldn't be difficult to build the wooden parts, (even with my gnarled hands). It's all the small metal parts that I'd need (and there are a lot of them) which are the problem. However, I have now got copies of most everything, including the launching links (which are damned hard to come by, IIRC the RE Museum only has a couple of these) so all I need is a small metal fabrication shop who'd be willing to have a go at these.

Longer term I'd like to manufacture kits of 1/6th Bailey Bridge and offer it for sale. I'd need to think hard about what material to use and ideally I'd love to manufacture in metal as I'm confident that it'll sell to all the large scale RC tankers but I also need to consider cost and shipping costs. I rather suspect that the primary market would be the US as they do like their engineering projects on the other side of the pond! Still, it would be nice to go to War & Peace some year and see someone drive an Armortek Comet over a 1/6th scale Bailey Bridge!

Well thinking about your building a 1/6 bridge...Armortek could well provide the materials and the fabrication..... Resin is too light and brass too expensive...although an alloy would work after all the MGB and ABLE/BR90 are such beasts.

just wrote a nice detailed reply to you only to have it disappear into the ether when I hit the add posting button!! Everytime I use IE to access this site I lose my posts, it's irritating in the extreme. Everytime it happens I am forced to run up Firefox just to add posts...can the mods have a look at this?

The upshot of my now, long gone reply was that although the model set is mostly made of wood the stress points are either reinforced with metal or they are made of metal (threaded pieces all use the old imperial threads). There are metal parts set into the panels to accept screws for rakers, bracing frames, chord reinforcement and of-course doubling the height on DD bridges. in addition to these parts the sway braces, transoms clamps and panel pins are all made from metal as are the screws. This is a highly detailed kit and it is supposed to be an exact copy of the 1:1 version and go together exactly the same...it was after all a trainning aid. Anything that existed for the Bailey got made for the model! I'd like to get the old model set refurbished whilst keeping it as close as possible to the original parts (a hard thing to acheive).

The manufacture of a new model set using modern materials might take a bit longer to organise, the world economy would need to pick up substanially before it can become viable again. I've talked to several firms about it already and whilst they start out seeming to be very enthusiastic about the idea they all seem to cool off as soon as they receive the drawings! However, I'm still hopeful of getting it done but so we shall see what 2012 brings us...